The Current - More sharks in the Atlantic and how a teen saved one

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

If you’re planning to go for a dip off the Atlantic coast in Canada you should keep your eyes out for sharks. A teen in New Brunswick even rescued one on Saturday. But even though that sounds a bit intimidating, researchers say we need to learn to live with the endangered species, who really can’t be bothered with humans. 

It wasn't too long ago that much of Canada's political class was united in their embrace of immigration to help grow the population and with it the economy. Now, many of those same people are singing a different tune, arguing that Canada's immigration consensus is broken. I'm Jamie Poisson, host of the Daily News podcast Frontburner, where we recently took a closer look at the political 180 on immigration. Check it out on the front burner feed wherever you get your podcast. This is a CBC podcast. I'm Lindsay Duncombe, and this is the current podcast. If you're spending any time on the Atlantic coast this summer,

you may want to pay extra attention to what's in the water. Shark sightings are up this summer. Now, scientists say that's good news, and we'll hear more about that in a moment. But first, let's hear from Finn Holland. He just had an up-close encounter with the shark. shark. Finn is 15. And last weekend, he rescued a beached shark near his home in Mesa's Bay, New Brunswick. Good morning, Finn. Hi. Let's start from the beginning here. How did you find out

about this beached shark? Well, I was mine in my own business. I was playing guitar in my room, and then my mom came in, and she told me that our neighbor told her that there's a shark on the beach. So what did you do? We immediately went down in our side by side, down to our beach just across the road. And sure enough, when we got in, like on the beach, I saw it in the distance and I'm like, okay, that is a shark. And we slowly walked over there. And sure enough, there's a shark there. And it was crazy.

What did it look like? it looked almost dead. You could only see subtle movements, like, he could only see subtle movements, like, breathing. And, like, he would twitch and, like, throw up his tail every once in a while because he's, like, trying to get back into the water by himself. So what did you do? I instinctively thought I needed to help this shark. Because helping people or creatures or anything,

makes me feel like I did the right thing and it's just something I love doing is helping. So without any hesitation, I looked for the best way to get him back into the water. I, with a slow approach, grabbed his tail fin, and then got a grip of his tail and I dragged him slowly into the water, where I then proceeded to guide him and redirect him back into the open ocean. It was just an instinct. You know, Finn, you describe this as instinct, but I don't think I know many people who would have an instinct to go and touch a shark. Were you scared at all? I was not scared, all confident, because I grew up on a farm. I've been around animals,

whole life, but nothing like a shark. This was my first shark experience. Never even, like, heard of one, like in the water at all. But when it's the right thing to do, you know what you have to do. Your mom was with you as this was happening. What was she saying? She said to leave it there and let nature take its course, but me being me, I was like, it didn't feel right. So I knew I had to do something, and that's what I ended up doing. She told me not to, but I didn't listen, because of course, helping people is just what I do. Thank you so much for sharing that very brave and caring story with us, Finn. My pleasure. Finn Holland helped rescue a shark in Southern New Brunswick.

Nigel Hussie is an associate professor of biology at the University of Windsor, and he is co-director of the Tancook Islands Marine Field Station in Nova Scotia. He joins us now with more on this. Good morning, Nigel. Good morning. What do you make of that story with Finn rescuing that ailing shark? It's interesting over the last few years we've seen. A few examples of sharks that are stranded on beach areas, including white sharks.

And I think that Finn's story is a great one. I think it's an indication these days of a real switching mentality over the last couple of decades, from a time when we used to catch and kill these animals to people taking responsibility and recognizing their important role in the ocean and taking that initiative as Finn did to release it back. Would you have done that at 15? I think I probably would have done that at 15 out of sheer curiosity. But certainly it's very brave of thin to go down,

you know, with that size of animal and take that on and tackle it and release it back into the water. It's a great, great example. How common is it for sharks to end up on shore like that? It's difficult to say, really, because the strandings of sharks would appear off the East Coast of Canada have certainly increased in recent years. But that may be because we didn't have any formal way of trying to document that in previous years. So it could be partially an artifact of more recent, accurate formal reporting of these sightings. But they're certainly present. There's no question about it.

The shark we've been talking about isn't a great white shark, but we are hearing about a number of great whites showing up along the coast of Atlantic Canada. What's behind that, Nigel? It's a very good question. White sharks have already, you know, historically, they've been present in Atlantic Canada. we have records back to the 1800s that document white sharks in these waters. I think an interest point is that if you look back at those historical records over time, those incidents, those reports were extremely rare, probably once every decade,

there was some form of an interaction or a white shot typically caught in fishing gear. and then it seems that since around 2010 onwards into 2015, we started to see this notable increase in White Sharks here. Now, some people would claim that's because we have social media, for example, and many more people now have cameras and undertake observations and report this. but I would sense that that's not the only explanation because what we're seeing in Atlantic Canada at the moment is basically a recovery of this species

and that recovery is not just in Atlantic Canada but in the entire Northwest Atlantic region. Why is the species recovering? What's behind it? So we historically the species was fished as many large shark species were over-exploited and, you know, that is tied to fishing, but also tied to, you know, the movie Jaws that had a massive impact and obviously was based on a very famous fisherman that fished out of New York targeting large, great wide shots. Now, we know, looking back in the past, that there was a historical bottleneck, what we call a genetic bottleneet,

which demonstrated the population had gone to a very small size. And following that, the were conservation measures. put in place. So in the US, the gill net fisheries that took place in the New York Bight, which is the main popping ground for great white sharks where newborns are, there was restrictions put in place on that gillnett fishery. And so certain conservation actions have had implications that have allowed this population to recover in addition to legal protection. obviously, say here in Canada, the White Shark is listed under the Species at Risk Act. So it's federally a protected species.

You cannot exploit it. And then if you take it a step further in Atlantic, Canada, I think we've got a combination of other factors that are enabling the population to recover. One is increasing sea surface temperatures from climate change. We've seen this increase here in the northwest Atlantic, which is now, you know, reaching into that perfect thermal realm for white sharks. So they can expand their range further northwards and for longer periods. And then if you couple that with the fact that we recovered the seal populations. And so now we have an extremely healthy population of seals here.

And so you've got a huge food resource available to allow this population to recover. You've been out in the water this summer taking these white sharks. What's that like? They're ultimately an incredible animal. There's no question about that. You know, when you've got a species that's been around for over 300 million years, they've evolved to, you know, complete perfection. And so all sharks in a sense of the absolute perfect predator in the ocean that are regulating our ecosystems.

So to, you know, to encounter and to work with white sharks is an absolute arborate. honor. And I must admit, you know, even in our past tagging a couple of weeks ago, to have that experience, that sort of close encounter with that type of animal. Yeah, I had some pretty much some of the best moments in my life, even in the last couple of weeks. And that compares to, you know, three decades of working on sharks. Wow. The best moments in your life. So you're on a boat, on the ocean, these animals are huge and you are physically putting a tag on a giant predator. Does it get scary? Scary isn't really the word we would use.

They're impressive more than anything. The team that we have is undertaking this tagging research here in Canada, you know, is a world-class experts in terms of dealing with large shark species. So there's decades of experience in the team to be able to, you know, capture the animal and deal with it to ensure, you know, we're maximising animal welfare and the condition of the animal. But at the same time, we can also maximize the amount of data that we're collecting on that individual animal. I appreciate your admiration for the, the animals and their strength.

But for many people who are going to the beach in Atlantic Canada, there might be a bit of fear about the fact there are more of these sharks being notified. What advice do you have for people if they might encounter a shark? Well, there's a couple of points here. Number one, the reality is in many other parts of the world, there are very healthy populations of white sharks, say for example, off Australia. And people are undertaking recreational water activities all the time, surfing, swimming, scuba diving, etc. And so our case here in Atlantic Canada is no difference.

People should continue to use the marine environments as they would usually do. I think a key point with sharks, including the white shark, is yes, it's important to be aware that this particular species does occupy or inhabit shallow coastal areas where we undertake recreational water activities. But ultimately, if I take myself, I am of no value as food to a white shark. calarific wise there is no energy in terms of eating meat and if when you compare that say to a gray seal which is very high calerific value to a white shark so white sharks have no intention of eating human beings at all and in actual fact there's many observations now from drones etc from the Australian management program that demonstrates the shark, white sharks are regularly coming into close contact with swimmers and surfers that don't even know that the sharks there. But as soon as

the shark recognises it's a human, it just turns away because it's not interested. So I think it's really important for people to recognise sharks do not want to eat you. You are of no value to them. But there's certain common sense factors that people need to consider. Number one, low light conditions is a problematic area. If a shark can't determine what you are, then naturally it is going to mouth you to try and figure out if you're worth eating enough. The second key thing is if the seals around. The white shark's 100%. One of their key prey items that they're targeting is the seals. So if you're in an area where there are seals around or seals are hauled out on the rocks there, then it's probably not a good idea to go in the water. Thank you so much for

joining us today, Nigel. That's an absolute pleasure. Nigel Hussie is an associate professor of biology at the University of Windsor and co-director of the Tancook Islands Marine Field Station in Nova Scotia. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.com.